A Thief's Adventures.-The Death of a Constable.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 106, 13 June 1885, Page 6

A Thief 's Adventures. -The Death of a Constable.

At the London Mansion House, recently, James Smith was charged on remand with beiogon the roof oftheGreit Northern Goods Station, in the Mint, for the purpose of committing a felony. When trying to capture the man, a detective of t!ie Metropolitan police, named Barber, fell through the glas a roof, a height of upwards ot sixty feet, and was so seriously injured that he expired soon afterwards. Mr St John Wontner, who prosecuted, said that since the remand a searching inquiry had been made, and the evidence giveu at the inquest showed that there hai not been any struggle between the prisoner and the detective on the roof ; therefore he could only prosecute the man for the crime with which he was now charged. Alderman Sir R. Garden paid that it was a melancholy case, inasmuch as a young police-officer had Io3t his life in carrying out his duty. Barber was about to be married, his mother had recently died, and at the time of his death he was the sole support of his aged father. He was glad to hear that the metropolitan police had subscribed £40 for the father, and he had now tb satisfaction of adding £5 which the Lord Mayor had ordered to be taken from the poorbox. Police-constable Bryce said that v, hen the prisoner was in the station in Seething Lane he destroyed a wooden lid, and when Bryce entered he dealt him a severe blow on the back of his head with a piece of wood which the man had concealed behind him. Ihe prisoner said that the officer wa3 going to cut his throat with a knife, and that he was badly hurt all over. Mr St. John Wontner said he did not wonder at that, for after leaving theroof of thegoodsstation Smith fellthrough the skylight of an hou?e on to a woman who was in bed, and nearly frightened her to death. Her son seized a broomstick and dealt the man a blow on the nose, and it was in this house that he was captured. A prison warder said that the accused had been in penal servitude in the name of John Kelly. He was convicted, after a previous conviction, in 1879, and was now at large under a ticket ofleave The Alderman said that the Home Secretary would deal with his ticket of-leave ; but on the present charge he should order him to be imprisoned for three months as a rogue and vagabond, fourteen days for the wilful damage in the cell, and an additional two months' hard labour for the dastardly assault on the officer.